Supreme Court of the Washington, D.C.

Pointe-au-Pic, Canada, July 25, 1928.

My dear George:

I have your letter of July 3d, and am delighted to read it and to follow you and Mrs.

Sutherland in your delightful journey through Italy. My wife’s sister, Miss Maria Herron, has done a great deal of traveling in Italy and elsewhere, and she says that you have marked out for yourselves one of the most delightful trips in the World. I have been through part of it myself, and therefore know enough to congratulate you. I sincerely hope that you find Cadenabbia just as good now as it was when you wrote the letter, and that you find that your rest is accomplishing the result that your doctor had in mind.

Of course we are most anxious about the election of Hoover, and I am bound to say that I think the Republicans feel that the chances are strongly in favor of Hoover’s election, but I don’t know how wisely they judge. There are so many cross currents in the election that it is hard to calculate what their effect will be, but as the campaign opens, it is fairly clear that the farm question is entirely out of the picture. Even old Norris says that they can not have another party, and the consequence is that if Smith is going to win, he has got to do it with New York, New

Jersey, Connecticut and , and by a retention of all the southern States. The difficulty that the Democratic party is facing is the very serious threat made by the Baptists and the Methodists and the drys in the South to organize a Democratic ticket in each State with the electors for Hoover, and induce the Republicans in those States to enter no ticket at all. These movements seem to be serious in several States. North Carolina is one, Tennessee is another,

Kentucky is another, and Missouri and Oklahoma are others. Smith has made a mistake, I think, the selection of the Chairman of his committee, Rasgob who is one of the Vice-Presidents of the -2- great automobile company, who is a Catholic, and who announces that he has just come in for the purpose of defeating prohibition. He has moved the campaign committee’s headquarters from its regular place to the home of his corporation, all of which of course is communicated at once to the drys throughout the South. My son Robert was in Texas attending to some business just a week ago, and he says that the newspapers are full of defections from the Democratic party who decline to vote for Smith. Now all this may mean not so much because of the difficulty of organizing a movement of this kind through the southern States, but there is a Republican party in North Carolina, there is one in Tennessee, there is one in Kentucky, and there is one in

Missouri and also in Oklahoma, and Smith could carry his ringing wet States and still not have a majority in the Electoral College, if he loses those five States that I have mentioned. But as I am a long time out of politics, my judgment is not worth having, but such as it is I put it in.

You may have seen the severe criticisms of our judgment in the wire tapping case, but I think the more that the case is read and understood, the less effective will be the eloquence and denunciation of Brandeis and Holmes. I feel quite sure that we are right, and that this will be ultimately recognized.

We were able to come up here and reach here on the 6th of June. Then we went back to

New Haven for my fiftieth anniversary from the 16th to the 20th, and then returned here. I caught a little cold in New Haven, and it has rather pursued me here, though I suppose I have no real reason to complain of it, but a summer cold hangs on, and this season in May and June was so infernally wet that it was difficult to get rid of a cold.

I have been working a bit as far as I could on certioraris, but the great mass of them remain and are not yet prepared for my consideration by my Law Clerk. I have had the briefs in -3- the Chicago Drainage case, but I have just been too lazy and too much out of touch to attempt to write on the opinion. I hope I shall be better able to do that during the month of August.

My daughter is here with her two children and her husband in a separate house on our place. My son Robert, who was a delegate-at-large at the Kansas City Convention from Ohio for

Hoover, has come here with his wife and four boys. My brother Horace is here, so that we have a full house. They all, but my boy Robert, will be with us until late in September. My son

Charlie, the one who tried the Remus case, is running for office again and has a primary on the

14th of August. He has a very decided opposition, because the primary involves a charter or reform ticket and the regular ticket. I have felt considerable doubt as to his success. My other boy who is here is a regular Republican on that issue, but of course he is for Charlie, and he tells me that he thinks Charlie will be nominated, but I have my doubts. However, there is a good deal worse that could come to the boy than being defeated for office. He has had a very good experience and will be quite prepared to come back to the practice. He will be with us here I hope after the primary, about the 15th or 16th of August, and will remain for a month. My boy

Bob will come back to my birthday party, so that we shall have the eleven grandchildren I hope on that occasion.

The campaign will be on with all fervor when you get back, and you will probably know as much about it as we who are here.

I received a very sweet letter from Mrs. Sutherland about the flowers I sent to the steamer, and I am very glad that she said they lasted a long time, as that type of rose does. I did not answer her letter, because I did not know where to answer it, and I hope she will therefore excuse my apparent remissness in this matter. -4-

I do hope you will write me again and tell me of your satisfaction in the treatment that your doctor has recommended, and that you will come back ready for the fray, of which we shall have much in the coming term.

Van stayed in Washington for some little time and found a good deal to do in helping me to decide some points that had to be decided for the Clerk. He took his wife to Hot Springs,

Virginia, and found a very comfortable place for her, but I think that by this time she must be with him up in the woods in Ontario. He spoke of her progress with satisfaction when he last wrote just before he left for the North. I haven’t heard from any of the others as yet, although I hope to. I hope to have a letter from . He is down, as you know, near Biarritz. I sincerely hope that they will find some comfort for that afflicted daughter of theirs in the trip they are taking.

Mrs. Taft joins me in love to you and Mrs. Sutherland, and hopes that you may write us again.

As ever,

Most affectionately yours,

William H. Taft

Hon. George Sutherland, c/o Brown Shipley & Company, 123 Pall Mall, London, .